The Unbelievable Story of How I Met Your Mother by Preston Randall

Daniel Zurenski is 40 (or so) and lives in the same basement room he’s been in since he moved out of the crib, he has an okay job (not that many coworkers are aware he exists, but the job is okay), and is pretty out-of-shape. He seems to be an all-right guy who maybe has a problem with emotional eating, zero love life, and a less-than-healthy attachment to his mother. He’s on a little bit of a fitness kick at the moment — he ran a 5K with people from his office a few weeks back and now finds himself signed up for the city marathon.

But before he can get there, comedy strikes. Poor Daniel. But ultimately, good for Daniel (see the title, you know it’s going to have a happy ending). But before the good, comes a lot of . . . well, things he can laugh about later — and the reader can laugh at now.

Before we get to that, however, we have to get through some more character introductions, which are really just ways for Randall to set up some dominoes to knock over when the time is right. This is done pretty well, at a certain point, you understand just what he’s setting things up for, and the details approach overkill. But stay with him — they’re really not that bad, and everything he sets up has a purpose. Once he starts knocking over dominoes, it’s all worth it.

The humor is gross, quite simply. And very slap-sticky. But if you can handle the gross, and enjoy the slap-stick, it’s really well done (not the easiest thing in the world to pull off, either). And then after the slap-stick comes the title event, which is nice. I think the epilogue-esque material could lose a couple of paragraphs and be better off for it, but that’s a minor quibble.

It’s short, it’s cute, it’s more narratively satisfying than another recent work with a similar title. Randall’s short story is worth the time, give it a shot.